Iranian regime ‘has infiltrated Labour’
Labour MP Joan Ryan, public enemy No1 for the hard-left, on the sinister bid to oust her
THE Iranian regime was last night accused of infiltrating Labour and undermining a pro-israel MP, who faces being ousted from Parliament.
Two journalists from Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster that is banned from broadcasting in Britain, joined the constituency party of the head of Labour Friends of Israel some months ago, The Daily Telegraph understands.
On Thursday night, one of them, Roshan Salih, was entitled to cast a ballot in a successful vote of no-confidence in Joan Ryan at her Enfield North constituency party meeting.
Mr Salih was also able to film and broadcast the meeting for Press TV.
The second journalist, Robert Carter, was also spotted filming at the vote. Party sources told The Telegraph he joined Labour in 2015.
Last night Ms Ryan, chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, demanded that Iranian propagandists from the news channel be ousted from the party, describing their actions as “appalling” and “greatly concerning”.
Ms Ryan, a critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to stamp out anti-semitism, said the Iranian broadcaster specifically targeted her because of her support for Israel, adding that its presence had been an “appalling infiltration”.
In an interview with The Telegraph,
Ms Ryan, a Labour MP since 1997, said: “I’m horrified they’ve infiltrated the Labour Party … and I think it needs to be investigated, because it is incredibly serious. I’m proud of my values, and I don’t expect to be the toast of the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime.” Her constituency party has launched an investigation into the incident, which she described as part of an attempt to “purge” moderates from Labour.
The news emerged on the day that Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, said he was “not sure it is possible” for Labour “moderates” to ever take back the party from the Left.
A Labour insider told The Telegraph that Mr Salih joined the party months ago, adding that staff were trying to discover if yet more members of the organisation had followed suit. It is also understood that Mr Salih, who calls Israel a “terror state”, was able to vote in the no-confidence motion.
A Labour spokesman said last night that the party would not discuss individual members. Mr Salih answered questions on Twitter about whether he was a member by saying: “I might be, I might not be. I suggest you do your job and investigate whether I am.”
Iran is regarded by Israel as its archenemy, and has been accused of wanting to “wipe Israel off the map”. The Islamic Republic has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Mr Corbyn has historic links to Press TV, having been paid £20,000 for appearances on the channel, and Mr Salih has interviewed him “countless” times, praising him as “genuine and decent”.
Calling on Mr Corbyn to take action, Ms Ryan warned that she and other MPS had been targeted by hard-left activists and supporters of Momentum as they had chosen to “stand up against anti-semitism”. Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said he found it “impossible to fathom” how Press TV was able to enter the venue.
‘If we go down this rabbit warren of purges and harassment, I fear for the Labour Party’
JOAN RYAN is well used to a political scrap, having fought Enfield North six times and won on five of those occasions. At last year’s general election she pulled off one of the most impressive results in the country, increasing her majority from 1,086 to 10,247.
But for some Labour members she has become public enemy No 1, the subject of an extraordinary and somewhat sinister attempt to drive her out of the seat she first won in 1997. Her crime? To speak out against Jeremy Corbyn, and to speak up for the state of Israel.
As the chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, Ms Ryan, a 63-year-old grandmother who has been a Labour Party member for 34 years, is a top target for the hard Left, which has already started to enact its plan to purge the party of moderates, particularly those who are pro-israel.
On Thursday night she was one of two Labour MPS who lost votes of no confidence held by their Constituency Labour Parties (CLPS), the first stage of a process that could ultimately lead to their deselection. Ms Ryan blamed the move on Momentum, the “party within a party”, as she calls it, that swept Mr Corbyn to power.
What made the events of Thursday night all the more extraordinary was that the vote – which she narrowly lost by 94 votes to 92 – was filmed and broadcast by Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster which is banned in the UK but which she says has “infiltrated” Labour.
The Press TV journalist who filmed the event, a Muslim who only yesterday described Israel as a “terror state”, joined the Labour Party in May this year, enabling him to attend meetings such as the one in Enfield North.
For Ms Ryan, the evening’s events could hardly have been more intimidating. “The atmosphere was deeply unpleasant,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “There were a lot of nasty, sneering looks. I’ve fought a hard seat six times and won in five, but I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
“There was nothing kind or gentle about it. A lot of members no longer want to come to meetings. I’m not going to pretend it’s not upsetting – it is. But nothing will drive me away from my values.”
As a supporter of Tony Blair and an outspoken critic of both Ken Livingstone and Mr Corbyn, Ms Ryan was already a target for the hard Left before she became chairman of Labour Friends of Israel in 2015. She first became Labour MP for Enfield North in 1997, having previously served as a Labour member of Barnet council, and became a junior Home Office minister under Mr Blair.
She opposed Mr Corbyn’s leadership bid, saying there were “serious questions” about his past, and during the 2017 election campaign she said her constituents had more faith in Theresa May as prime minister than in Mr Corbyn as a possible replacement.
What really put her in the firing line, however, was her condemnation of Mr Corbyn during the long and ongoing row over anti-semitism in the Labour Party.
She accused him of peddling “sinister” anti-semitic conspiracy theories; making “deeply bringing party into
Supporters Mr Corbyn angrily accused her of “smearing” the leader and contributing to a “trial by media”, and set about plotting to get rid of her.
One telling statistic shows just how much influence they now have in Enfield North. Since Mr Corbyn became Labour leader, the membership of the local CLP has swelled from 300 members to more than 1,000, an indication of so-called “entryism” from Leftwingers. One of those who joined after Mr Corbyn became leader was Paul Kershaw, whose allegiances have in recent years included the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), a Leftwing party co-founded by the late RMT union leader Bob Crow.
Mr Kershaw stood in the May 2014 local elections in Enfield for TUSC against the Labour party and also joined Left Unity, the party founded in 2013 by film director Ken Loach as a far-left alternative to Labour.
Mr Kershaw, whose Twitter handle includes the date 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, joined Labour in 2016 and it was he who put down the motion of no confidence in Ms Ryan. “I know why I was targeted: because I stood up against anti-semitism,” she said. “Anti-semitism has become the battleground of the Labour Party. It would seem that with Momentum, if you don’t agree with them and everything they say, they’re against you.
“But I think this issue of anti-semi-
tism and anti-zionism is fundamental to their politics and their values.”
Anti-semitism is also fundamental to the values of Iran and Press TV. In May, Press TV’S London correspondent Roshan Salih joined the Labour Party and, in particular, the Enfield North CLP, as he lives in the constituency.
He has in the past interviewed Mr Corbyn and on Holocaust Memorial Day this year he interviewed Mr Livingstone about the “exploitation” of the Holocaust. Mr Salih repeatedly claimed the Holocaust had become “an industry”. On Thursday night, Mr Salih attended the no-confidence vote and filmed it for Press TV, despite being told there was a blanket ban on filming.
Siddo Dwyer, chairman of the Enfield North CLP, insisted on Twitter yesterday that he had told the “member” to stop filming, but Mr Salih responded by taunting him, saying: “There were no ‘no filming’ posters at the meeting,” and tweeting pictures of a toilet roll with the Israeli flag on it.
Mr Salih has described Mr Corbyn as “the most genuine, decent man I have met in politics”. One Labour source last night denied that Mr Salih was a party member. On Twitter, Mr Salih said in answer to the question of whether he is a Labour member: “I might be, I might not be. I suggest you do your job and investigate whether I am.”
Ms Ryan said of the vote: “I fought the hard Left to a virtual draw. Labour faces a choice: we can focus on winning the next election or we can go down this rabbit warren of deselections, purges and harassment, and if we do that, I fear for this party.
“I think last night demonstrated that there are Labour members who are now going to organise to remove MPS who are not toeing the Momentum line. The Labour Party is tearing itself to pieces and in the process it is tearing down the people it needs the most.”
Ms Ryan said Labour is no longer the “safe space” it once was. Fearing intimidation, she asked Labour officials to attend Thursday night’s vote, but none did. Yesterday, Mr Corbyn’s only comment on the matter was: “Every party has a right to question what its MP does, to challenge them on what they do and how they represent the area, and that’s exactly what happens in those areas, as I understand it.”
She said no one in the party leadership had offered her any words of support. She has had “dozens” of supportive messages from others in the Labour Party, but said: “Whilst they’re heartening, why are some of these people not speaking out?”